


Observation

by DoctorDalek



Category: The Last Door
Genre: Multi, St Gall Boarding School, Videte ne quis sciat, forbidden books
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:59:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6383113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorDalek/pseuds/DoctorDalek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While still being educated at the St Gall boarding school Anthony refuses to cease his (fruitless) scientific work and keeps using Hugo as his test subject. Alexandre, on the other hand, is annoyed by Jeremiah's unsociableness. Oh, and of course he's developing an unhealthy interest towards the nude ladies in Father Ernest's forbidden books.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Observation

 

_Observing.  
That’s all he’d ever wanted. Only this and nothing more._

_Just observing how lust burst into bloom, how the flesh softened and vibrated beneath the desirous touch.  
Watching them, loin against loin, fighting and struggling… struggling for pleasure…_

“Alexandre.”

Alexandre’s gaze rose instantaneously; the book snapped shut and dropped into his lap.  
As he turned his attention to Anthony he noted that Anthony was still engrossed in the viscous bubbling liquid in the conical flask in front of him.  
“Daydreaming again, are we?” Anthony asked dismissively while pipetting and taking notes.  
Alexandre growled under his breath and picked up the book again.

He had to admit that some of the books Father Ernest’s had confiscated over the years had in fact appealing aspects.  
They weren’t just immoral; they took obscenity to a whole new level.  
And some of the illustration were quite instructive…

He turned another page.

“How’s our patient?”  
Anthony could barely hide the anticipation in his voice; still, out of the corner of his eyes, Alexandre found him beaming at the glooping substance in front of him.  
After all this time Anthony hadn’t given up hope.

Alexandre rolled his eyes.  
Of course. The patient.

Since their first encounter at the St Gall boarding school Jeremiah Dewitt had always been…  
Strange. Just a bit weird. And a nuisance.  
Alexandre despised him for reasons yet to be discovered. But he despised him nonetheless.  
Which, apart from the obvious mortal danger their project bore, was the main reason why Alexandre had suggested Jeremiah as their test subject.  
Unfortunately Anthony had disallowed his nomination. He and Jeremiah shared a bond which remained a mystery to Alexandre.

As a result it wasn’t Jeremiah’s tied-up body he was casting a glance over right now but Ashdown’s.

“Experiencing some kind of seizure,” Alexandre replied eventually and turned another page.  
“Again” he added to see Anthony distinctly shudder.  
“Why, my dear Alexandre, if we don’t forge ahead soon our poor roommate will die at our hands.”

“Which would be an improvement,” Alexandre sighed while thumbing through the book for more of those ‘educational’ illustrations “At least then we knew that we’d succeeded in developing a poison.”

“We’ve developed a formula that isn’t lethal” Anthony retorted peevishly, “Everyone has to start somewhere.”

Alexandre shut the book and stared at Ashdown whose muscles were twitching.  
“Oh Christ, he’s in _that_ state again,” Alexandre groaned before shouting: “Anthony, a bucket of cold water and a peppermint inhalant! And hurry up!”

As you can imagine, things weren’t going too well.

The Veil - a place beyond imagination.

Anthony’s father’s legacy was of uttermost importance to Alexandre. The diary he’d kept promised knowledge without borders, a world full of creation and diversification. A reality beyond reality. A world behind your eyes. And it promise that once you’ve crossed the path beyond the Veil you’d return as a different man… It changed your life. It changed _you_.  
Which, in Alexandre’s eyes, wasn’t a warning; it was a pledge.

But first, and this was the difficult part, they had to overcome the state of, in Anthony’s father’s words, ‘ostensible consciousness’.  
You had to accept that there was something that went beyond your spatial senses, something intangible and yet more real than anything you’ve ever seen before in your life.  
And it wasn’t enough to simply acknowledge it; you had to be immersed in it and meld with the reality beyond.  
You had to leave the shell of your physical manifestation behind and ascend to the glory of discarnate existence.  
You had to break free from the shackles of endurance.

Sadly, and much to the displeasure of Alexandre, Anthony’s father hadn’t left behind any kind of instructions or clues or even the slightest proposal concerning how they should achieve that state of mind. It was a cruel way to torture one’s mind: you were given a glimpse of infinite knowledge and apprehension. But it was just a glimpse through a foggy window. And it was far too short to make anything useful of it but enough to fascinate you.  
It was like giving someone the most delicious Petit four and telling them _after_ they’d relished it that they had lost the recipe.  
It just wasn’t fair.

But most of all, one thing was clear:  
Alexandre and Anthony had to find a way to let their minds leave their bodies to go exploring.  
And was there any other obvious way than the usage of drugs?  
So they had committed themselves to the systematic study of mind-augmenting serums.  
Well, most of the time anyway.

Lately Alexandre’s mind had been wandering.  
He couldn’t deny his curious affection for carnal desires and other worldly temptations father Ernest subsumed under ‘the devil’s work’.  
But apparently, or at least according to his impure novelizations, they weren’t immoral but ‘fun’ and you didn’t need one devil but two individuals to perform these (sometimes quite artistic) deeds.  
It was the brazenly displayed unrestrained physical contact and the airy garments that engrossed Alexandre – two things he was simply not able to deal with because they had never been featured in any of his various lessons.  
Therefore he didn’t even know what it was that fascinated him.

Neither did he know why he couldn’t take his eyes off Jeremiah when he was forced to stand beside him while they were having a shower.

But he was determined to find out.


End file.
